I didn’t know him, but I bet George was cooler than a polar bear’s toenails. I just picture him helping an old woman across the street, then chugging a beer faster than you.

My friend Scott lives in Fountain Square, a growing cultural district in downtown Indianapolis. In a nearby alley, you can find this mural of Big George. When I asked him about it, he said no one’s sure who the artist is, or if Big George was an actual person. Either way, this is my favorite piece of public art at the moment. Simple, awesome & oddly-placed.

Scott’s band, Mardelay, thought it was cool, too. They played a few songs for The Indianapolis Star with Big George watching over, helping promote their record release party at Radio Radio this past Saturday 4/25. Check out the set, and a short interview below:

Plain & simple, the Cleptoz have been making music & rocking parties in Indianapolis since 2003… consistently. They’ve worked with several DJ’s (Vinyl Richie, Orion & Rusty), as a group, but recently took time away for solo projects (Dizzy’s album, The Becoming is dropping June ’09). Tighty Whities is a collection of new material, making it clear these two MC’s haven’t gone anywhere.

Both Hum.V and Dizzy spit tasty rhymes over hand-crafted beats from C-Ray & Vinyl Richie, along with remixing more familiar songs from Kid Cudi to Soulja Boy (yes… Soulja Boy). Tha B.C., Dash and alpha. all make guest appearances.

I missed this a couple weeks ago, but Black Thought rips it, detailing a day-in-the-life of a girl overexposed to reality TV, namechecking everything from Celebrity Fit Club to the Love of Ray J over the sounds of Dilla.

I also just heard about this Roots Picnic going on June 6 in Philadelphia. Looks tempting………..

I’m catching up on downloads from the past couple weeks, and I’ve been looking forward to Big Sean. If you’re new to him, he’s G.O.O.D. Music’s charismatic 21-year old with natural talent, a knack for style, and metaphors for days. His story of being discovered is straight out of a movie, which makes it hard not to root for him. He talked about meeting Kanye for the first time in The Detroit News:

“He was like, ‘I’m in a hurry, man,’ and I was like, ‘Please man, you’re my hero, just let me spit!'” says Sean. “He was like, ‘All right man, real quick while we’re walking out the station.'”

Because he had been rapping on-air all summer, Sean had an arsenal of raps memorized in his head. Filing through his mental Rolodex, he started rapping for Kanye. Kanye slowed down and suddenly wasn’t in such a hurry to leave the station. He liked what he heard.

You know an album is good, when you don’t even notice it’s the clean version. I’d heard about this first on Phonte‘s Twitter. Odisee has produced songs for Little Brother and Kweli in the past, among others, so I figured it was worth a listen.

And glad I did. This is one of the best “surprise” downloads I’ve had in a long time. Once you hear MC’s X.O. and YU, it’s clear this is a full packaged journey back to the 90’s golden era. A concise 12 tracks. Kicks, snares, booms, baps, and nice raps. Diamond District delivers it all from the DMV, making company amongst fellow DMV’er Wale Folarin. A strong debut.